Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1887-08-18

elry and searched their pockets for money.
When the dead bodies were laid out in
the corn fields these hyenas turned them over
in their search for valuables, and that the
plumber wal done by an organized gang was
proven by the fact that this incoming out in
the c~ornfield sixtssn purses, all empty, were
found in one heap It was CHASTITY plumber
ing, and had the plraderers been caught
this afternoon they would surely have been
lynched There was onerincident Of the
cident which stood out more horrible Ill.,.
ali OF these horrible scenes. In the second
coach were q man. his wife and little child
His name could not be learned to-day, but
it is said he got on at Peoria When the ac-
cident occurred the entire family of three
was caught and held dgwn by broken wood
work. Finally when relief came the man
turned to the friendly aid aid feebly said:
take out my wife first; I'm afraid the hid
p dead So they carried out the mother,
and as a broken seat was taken of
her crushed breast the blood which
welled from her lips told how badly
she was hurt They carried the child-a
fair-haired. blue-eyed girl of three-and laid
her in the corn field dead, along side Of her
dying mother. Then they went back for the
father and brought him out Both his legs
were broken. but he crawIed through the
corn to the side Of his wife and, feeling her
loved features in the darkness. pressed some
brandy to her lips and asked her how she
felt A feeble groad was
THE ONLY ANSWER.
and the next instant she died The man felt
the forms of his dead wife and child and
cried out, sMy Godl there is nothing more
for me to live fer now, and taking a pistol
out of his pocket, pulled the trigger. The
bullet vent surely through his brain, and the
three dead bodies of that little family are
now lying side by side in Chatsworth waiting
to be identified About 8 o'clock the re-
porter was driven out to the
wreck The driveway led along the
left Of the railroad and to
the south os the road was
an old-fashioned Usage orang hedge. The
road was very muddy and full of chuck holes
A stream of humanity was pouring in from
the wreck. Some had checks in their hats
and carried yalises They were evidently
passengers on the Inflated train. Country
boys and girls came along swinging hands
and talking in low tones about the terrible
disaster. A photographer dragged his
weary limbs along the track. He
was carrying a camera and o lot
of negatives The roadbed was almost
level, just a little grade running up TO the
wreck at a raise of ten or fifteen feet to the
mile. About two or three miles from the
town on a little raise was the debris of the
wreck The sleeping car @Tunis" was at The
end of the train II was lacked in the air.
Supported by the ~trestles. The front end of
the car was directly over the place where
the bridge stood. To the right lay a coach
all
BROKEN INTO KINDLrNG WOOD,
and directly on the road was piled up what
was left of six OF seven coaches, turned
bottom side up, and broken beyond recog-
milton Across the track in front of the pile
OF debris was a coach lying crosswise, way
up at least ten feet in the air. Beyond were
the two tenders and one engine. One ten
der was to the left Of the track and the
other to the right They were turned
b6ttom side up and rent assunder. The engine
was scarcely recognizable. On the side
of the cab was the ill-starred number 49,
Only a big pane of glass marked SO" On
the hedge were hats. shoes, and all manner
of wearing apparel, broken lanterns and
seats from the cars 1t was an awful sight
Hats of men and women, broken and scared
with blood, coats reeking with gore, and
ladies' underwear smeared with life-fiuid
IL Was pam 70 DC seen lIpIl lDt lOOks u Tie
baggage that the travellers were well-to-do
people. There was
AN INCIDENT
in the affair which was not only remarkable
in its way, but shows how terribly these six
coaches were jammed and mashed together.
When the accident occurred Andy Mooney
of Peoria and Conductor Stiliwell, who was
in charge of the train, were three cars from
each other. Mooney was in the second car
Stillwell in the fifth. The next instant
they found themselves literally in each
arms. the car in which the conductor
was riding having boon carried over the two
in front and dropped on top of
the one which Mooney was in. The strange
part of il was neither man was hurt The
most horrible death of all was that Of En-
gineer McClintock engineer of the second en-
CINE Of the double header. The first engine
which Engineer Sutherland was driving
passed over the burning bridge in safety,
but it was under it's weight that the half
consumed bridge gave way. and the tender
dropped back into the dry slough
Sutherland's engine kept the rails and
ran on in safety. such was the
awful speed of the unfortunate train.
McCiintock's engine plunged down into The
black hole, and as the tender mounted on
top of the cab it took McClintock in the back
of the neck and cut his head clean off his
shoulders The trunk was found under the
engine, the head couldn't be discovered, and
the presumption is that it was ground 10
in the horrible millstones of the en-
CINE and the tender. There have been many
guesses as to the origin of the fire which
weakened the bridge and caused the acct
dent. but SO far they are nothing but
guesses The
NEWS OF THE DISASTER
was brought to Chatsworth by one Of the
passengers about midnight, and the inhabi-
tants aroused, buggies, lumber wagons, and
every kind of vehicles were used to reach
the fatal spot As fast as the corpses were |
taken from the wreck they were laid out on
the side of the track. Before daylight
the work of recovering the dead and remov-
ing them to Chatsworth was begun.
AS soon as the corpses were received
they we've placed in a large, empty building.
lately occupied as a store, also in the public
house and in the depot waiting room.
The residents of the town threw open their
houses for the reception of the dead and
VIC unded, but the former were all aiken to
the improyised morgues Friends and
relatives of the lead came to Chats |
worth with the remains and the scenes
in the different places where the bodies lay
was most heartrending and distressing. As
the day passed bodies were continrRllv !
brought in from the scene OF the wreck I
majority of them were mangled in the m
frightful manner, many of them having tn
faces entirely torn away, leaving th
bones exposed, while their jav
fingers and legs hEd been torn O
Indirectly the catastrophe was ascribed
the origin of so many other recent gre
calamities-.he unprecedented drouth. II
tall grass under a little culvert on the Toled
Peoria Il Western, a few miles east
Chatsworth had been rendered by Il
sun as dry as finder, and last night a loco
motive spark set it ablaze. the TIMBER
of the culvert caught on fire and
were smouldering unseen when at
train OF sixteen coaches of excursionists
frora Peoria and Bloomington and neighbor-
ing cities There was a terrific crash
and an accident almost unprecedent in
horrors had passed into history. That was
the brief story, quickly CLEANED on the
streets of Chatsworth this evening.
A PROMINENT RUSSIAN.